In 1975 Kohler and Milstein (Nature, 256, pp 495-497) reported a method of producing monoclonal antibodies directed against a single antigenic determinant. Amongst the advantages of monoclonal antibodies are (1) their unique specificity and (2) their potential to allow the development of perpetually reproducible standard reagents. However, since monoclonal antibodies are specific to a single determinant, or interaction with antigen they can only form soluble linear complexes, rather than cross-linked complexes which might be insoluble (precipitating). Therefore, individual monoclonal antibodies have not hitherto appeared to be applicable to techniques that are dependent on the formation of insoluble immune complexes.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method by means of which monoclonal antibodies may be reacted with proteins to produce insoluble antigen/antibody complexes that will allow the application of monoclonal antibodies to techniques which require formation of the aforesaid insoluble complexes.
It is a particular object to provide a method by means of which monoclonal antibodies may be used to assay the total immunoglobulin population or selected immunoglobulin sub-populations present in complex mixtures viz. serum or other body fluids.